February 2025 blog | prints, stickers, zine workshop, sketching

Where did February go?? It both feels like it’s gone on forever and gone super fast. Hard to believe we’re already two months into 2025. I’ve only just stopped accidentally writing ‘2024’ when dating things.

This month was mostly prep for the art markets happening in March! I ordered my first ever proper prints, designed more sticker sheets, did some sketchbooking and went to a zine-making workshop.

More sketchbook play!

I have been really enjoying this ‘new’ drawing style I’ve been using recently (sketching with blobs of watercolour, then cleaning up and adding details with coloured pencil). I made 2 more spreads in my sketchbook using @stillherestilllife’s February prompt photos. The first one came out surprisingly polished while the second was incredibly scribbly. I really love how these pieces look!

New prints

Remember the @stillherestilllife piece I did in January? I made that, along with 3 other paintings, into lovely-quality prints!! I used Moo.com’s postcard option to make them, and I love how they came out. It hits different when you see your art on fancy paper. I got these in preparation for Speak Volumes! Festival (21st-23rd March), and now also for Arthole’s Illustration fair on the 8th March.

Lilies and roses

I attempted to make a big watercolour painting this month. I…didn’t finish it. Hopefully I’ll have the time and motivation to do so eventually. My mum got some lovely flowers and I loved the contrasting shapes and colours of the closed lilies, the roses, and the leaves. I made a pen sketch of the bouquet first in my sketchbook, then started painting it on an A3 watercolour pad. Life got a little hectic after that, so it's still in the sketch phase.

Zine workshop

The lovely Freddie from Speak Volumes! Festival hosted a whole day of workshops to fundraise for the festival itself. I went to the zine workshop (of course) in the evening and had a nice, chill time with the others who attended. Not gonna lie, it was nice to get out the house.

New sticker sheets

The last half of the month was spent desiging sticker sheets!

For the third Clementine Anthology theme of ‘Girlhood’ I decided to make a sticker sheet of doodle-y, typically ‘girly’ things in response to a memory I have from school, when I was made fun of in front of a class for making a pencil case with a colourful design of hearts and stars and all that, being told it was “so girly”. The sticker sheet is a nod to younger Emily, who in her teens tried to be as un-girly as possible, as well as to all the other girls that were told were being too ‘girly’ at some point in their life. I designed it as something others can use to decorate their journals (or whatever they like) to show that certain aesthetics shouldn’t be deemed more shameful than others or less serious than others.

I struggled to decide on a style for these stickers. I took a long time to finally decide to just use the watercolour and pencil style I’ve been using in my sketchbook. So I printed out the sketches I made and used a lightbox to paint them onto watercolour paper. I used coloured pencils to add detail, then scanned it in and cleaned it up on Procreate. I think this style adds to the theme of child/girlhood with the bright colours and scribbly lines.

The second sticker sheet I made was a small one! About half the size of an A6 sheet. Made out of cute lil guys that first debuted on my ‘Give this to someone you <3’ printable zine. I loved the little, oddly-serious but cute blobs I designed on that zine, and knew since that I wanted to draw more of them. So I had a lot of fun drawing them in odd situations, all with their deadpan expressions. I hope people love them as much as I do.

Both these sticker sheets went off to print at the very start of March! I’m hoping they get here in time for the Arthole market. Fingers crossed!! Enjoy the sneak peeks 👀

Upcoming

Arthole Cardiff Illustration Market

I’m super excited to have been given a table at Arthole’s next market on the 8th March in their new shop in Cardiff! I’m busy preparing for it with the new prints and stickers mention in this blog, as well as all my usual zines, sticker sheets, and pet portraits, which I will be offering to paint right there and then! I may or may not also be dabbling with a short animation idea like I did last year… 👀

Speak Volumes! Festival

As mentioned last month, my work will be in the ‘Zine Zone’ of Speak Volumes! Festival this year. I’m not sure if I will be able to go to the festival when it’s on, or to the wonderful workshops that will run during the 3-day event, but if you’re in or near Worcester I recommend you have a gander at what’s going on at The Arches!

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Thank you for reading my February 2025 blog post! It wasn’t as productive of a month as I would have hoped (which is still fine!!), with a few personal-life things getting in the way. I wasn’t able to work on a project I mentioned last month - painting on a canvas (or three), but perhaps in March I will be able to get going with it. As always I’ve also been writing away for a good chunk of the month, working on my fantasy novel (which, as of right now, I am having to make major changes to due to it being too long a story!!).

If you’ve read this all the way through, consider supporting me and my work by going over to my Etsy shop and having a browse if you like zines, stickers and prints mostly based around nature and travelling. You will also find my pet portrait commissions there! letsgetartyshop.etsy.com <3